Want to freshen up your wooden shutters? It is true that these are both protective and aesthetic for your home, since they embellish a facade. Unlike aluminum and PVC, wood needs maintenance, as weather and the sun have a greater effect on its surface. Fortunately, renovating and repainting your shutters is easy. Here are our tips and steps to follow to achieve this successfully.
How to equip yourself to renovate and repaint your wooden shutters?
Renovating and repainting wooden shutters is within everyone’s reach. On the other hand, you have to be well equipped to obtain a good result and work efficiently. Provide the following equipment:
- Paint for wooden shutters
- Anti-rust paint for metal parts
- Wood filler to repair damaged parts
- A round tip brush for edges and gaps, a roller for flat surfaces and a small brush for metal parts
- rags
- A spatula for applying wood filler
- Sandpaper for sanding
- At least two trestles to place a shutter on it while painting and drying. You can plan other pairs to treat several shutters at the same time and save time.
What are the steps to follow to renovate and repaint your wooden shutters?
Here are the steps we advise you to follow to successfully renovate and paint your wooden shutters.
Step 1: preparation
Before you start, make sure you are working in good conditions. You must have all the necessary equipment at your fingertips. Settle in a pleasant, ventilated place protected from bad weather and the sun. You can work indoors or outdoors, but avoid dirty and dusty places, as the dirt can stick to the still wet paint.
Ideally, avoid operating when it is too cold or when it is too hot. Your paint should dry well, but not too quickly to avoid streaking. Be patient and equip yourself with several pairs of trestles to save time. A pair will allow you to treat only one shutter, the time to renovate it, repaint it and let it dry, and this for each side! In other words, with just one pair of trestles, you will spend almost more time waiting than working.
Also remember to protect yourself. You can wear gloves and non-fragile clothes, or a suitable suit. Also protect your floor with a tarp if you are working indoors.
Step 2: dismantling
Take the shutters off their hinges so you can paint them. Place them on a pair of trestles, themselves placed on very flat ground to avoid unsightly drips. With a screwdriver, remove all the metal parts.
Step 3: stripping
Before renovating and repainting your shutters, you must carefully strip them with sandpaper in order to remove the previous layers of paint, otherwise you will never obtain a clean result and the paint will peel very quickly before coming off. To best achieve this, start with coarse grit sandpaper and refine the grit with each coat. Finish by carefully dusting with a damp sponge (not soaked), then microfiber cloths. Let it dry well before moving on to the next step.
Step 4: renovation
Before thinking about painting, you have to go through the renovation stage. Fill all the holes and cracks with wood putty that you apply with a spatula. Smooth the surface well and let dry for the time indicated on the manufacturer’s instructions. When the paste is dry, sand the surface with your sandpaper so that the paint hangs well and dust again.
Step 5: the undercoat
The undercoat is not mandatory, but it is nevertheless essential for a job well done. It allows a more aesthetic, more harmonious and more durable result, because it protects the wood and facilitates the adhesion of the paint. Take your brush, bend the bristles between your fingers and dip it in water to knock out any loose bristles, this will prevent them from sticking to the paint.
Apply your undercoat with the round brush, starting with the edges, angles and gaps between the wooden boards. Do not put too much to avoid an overdose which will cause drips. Then use your roller to paint the flat surfaces.
Let it dry for about 24 hours, flip the flap over and apply the undercoat to the other side. Once the whole shutter is cured and dry, lightly sand the surface with fine grit sandpaper to help the paint stick better.
While the shutters are drying, strip the metal parts, dust them and apply an undercoat of anti-rust paint.
Step 6: painting
Apply your paint as you did for the undercoat, starting with the edges, corners and gaps with a brush before painting the flat surfaces with a roller. Do not put too much product to avoid dripping. Let it dry then flip the shutter over to paint the other side.
If your shutters require a second coat, wait until the first is completely dry before applying it.
While drying, apply the paint to the metal parts.
Step 7: the finishes
To protect your wooden shutters and prolong the shine of the acrylic paint, we recommend that you apply a coat of varnish. If you bought glycero paint, the varnish is useless.
Reinstall the metal parts on your shutters and put everything back in place. Your work is then done!